Enola Gay if you want it to be.

[240 is Back]

Today's the 67th anniversary.

Enola Gay is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of the pilot, then-Colonel (later Brigadier General) Paul Tibbets.[2] On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb as a weapon of war. The bomb, code-named "Little Boy", was targeted at the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and caused extensive destruction.
 
The Enola Gay gained additional attention in 1995 when the cockpit and nose section of the aircraft were exhibited during the bombing's 50th anniversary at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution in downtown Washington, D.C. The exhibit was changed due to a controversy over original historical script displayed with the aircraft. Since 2003, the entire restored B-29 has been on display at NASM's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

amazing story here:
http://acepilots.com/usaaf_tibbets.html

[Shockwave]

In before 10 pages of other countries bitching about the US.

[Tito24]

and where does bbing comes into this?

[Dreadlifter]

[240 is Back]

and where does bbing comes into this?

In November 1954, five months before his death, Einstein summarized his feelings about his role in the creation of the atomic bomb: "I made one great mistake in my life... when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification - the danger that the Germans would make them."

[mass243]

In before 10 pages of other countries bitching about the US.

No bitching, I just think MuscleCenter may not like this anniversary.


For cool comparison of achievements of humankind - interesting to at least us nuke fans:

[Shockwave]

No bitching, I just think MuscleCenter may not like this anniversary.


For cool comparison of achievements of humankind - interesting to at least us nuke fans:

I didnt expect any bitching from you, you're a big fan of Russia, so you understand that violence DOES solve problems. 

[Wiggs]

No bitching, I just think MuscleCenter may not like this anniversary.


For cool comparison of achievements of humankind - interesting to at least us nuke fans:

Holy fuck...Is there video of that fucker going off?  I love watching nuclear weapons explode.  So beautiful in a destrutive way.

[Shockwave]

Holy fuck...Is there video of that fucker going off?  I love watching nuclear weapons explode.  So beautiful in a destrutive way.

Yeah, the Soviets big bomb is so unnecessarily awesome.
So much destructive force.

[Wiggs]

[Skeletor]

Yeah, the Soviets big bomb is so unnecessarily awesome.
So much destructive force.

And it was originally intended to be twice as big at 100MT.

[Shockwave]

Holy. Fucking. Shit.
14 mile high mushroom cloud?
Shockwave measurable after going around the earth 4 times?

Wow.

[Bosch]

"cloud was 40 miles high"
"detonated two miles above the ground ... rock had been turned to ash"
"four times bigger than anything America has ever exploded"

And that was 50 years ago. Has nuclear weapon progressed since?

[Shockwave]

"cloud was 40 miles high"
"detonated two miles above the ground ... rock had been turned to ash"
"four times bigger than anything America has ever exploded"

And that was 50 years ago. Has nuclear weapon progressed since?

Im not sure. I think Nuclear weapons technology kind of stagnated, as we had already developed weapons so devastating that the world kind of agreed not to use them.
I'd say they are probably going the other way now - seeing how small they can make them. Suitcase nukes and shit.

But I dont really know - I never really kept up with the stuff.

[Mr Anabolic]

"Tzar Stromba"

 

[Irongrip400]

That shit was cool.  fucking russians were like some sort of rednecks detonating a big pipe bomb in the woods.  Shit was beast.  That being said, once you get past the point of splitting atoms, isn't the size/strength of the bomb kind of easy to amplify.  What I mean is, once you have the technology, can't you just make a 1,000MT bomb?

[Parker]

Im not sure. I think Nuclear weapons technology kind of stagnated, as we had already developed weapons so devastating that the world kind of agreed not to use them.
I'd say they are probably going the other way now - seeing how small they can make them. Suitcase nukes and shit.

But I dont really know - I never really kept up with the stuff.

Wait, don't they know that we have to prepare for an alien invasion?

[Dr Dutch]

I read scientists were actually afraid that the explosion could set the entire atmosphere on fire, killing every living thing. Obviously this did not happen.   Even the fall out was very low because the explosion was very high above the ground.

[JasonH]

Love the thread title 

[sync pulse]

I read scientists were actually afraid that the explosion could set the entire atmosphere on fire, killing every living thing. Obviously this did not happen.  Even the fall out was very low because the explosion was very high above the ground.

If you are refering to the Tsar Bomba, they were sure that a fusion reaction between the nitrogen and the oxygen would not be triggered...this was a consideration in the first Trinity test in New Mexico in 1945...further research showed that nuclear explosions could not make this happen.  The Tsar Bomba was three stage bomb in that a fission bomb exploded, the xrays from which (the XRAYS mind you)
would exert pressure enough to compress and heat the fusion fuel into a fusion reaction.  The fusion reaction would be fueled by either cryonic Deuterium/tritium in a liquid form or Lithium 6 deuteride if it is solid fuel.

Here is how the Soviets throttled back the explosion to "only" 55 megatons...they simply made the out shell of the device lead instead of Uranium 238 as they originally intended.  If they had made it out of depleted uranium 238 the neutrons from the fusion reaction would be of such energy and number  even with nonfissile Uranium 238, the atoms would split doubling the yield with a fission component.  They didn’t go all the way so that the airplane dropping the bomb would have an even chance of escaping the explosion…It nearly didn’t.

[orion]

Holy fuck...Is there video of that fucker going off?  I love watching nuclear weapons explode.  So beautiful in a destrutive way.

Yes, the dvd is called Trinity and Beyond.  It is a pyromaniacs wet dream.

[sync pulse]

It was an interesting problem the development of ballistic missiles. 

The V2 could never have been a nuclear delivery system because the warhead could only be 2000 lbs…and the lightest nuclear weapons that could be made in 1945 were 10000 lbs…After the war when they decided to go ahead with developing ICBM’s…There was a quandary…How big and heavy would a thermonuclear warhead be?…While the nuclear physicists were working on the size and weight angle, the Missile developers had to go with no idea how heavy the warhead would be…So they made the design for the Atlas missile “open ended” in that it could be scaled up to be up to 300 feet tall if need be by the warhead design.  In the end they had to make the rocket 70 feet high to make it powerful enough to hurl the nuclear warheads around the planet.

[Parker]

Has anybody ever thought about taking an old hollowed out B-29 and turning it into a chic club or restaurant, or a cafe? The cockpit and tail sections could be used for closenit get togethers and or "spoken word night"
Even an old 747? Use the first class for a VIP area, a almost "working" 747 without wings...

[Shockwave]

Has anybody ever thought about taking an old hollowed out B-29 and turning it into a chic club or restaurant, or a cafe? The cockpit and tail sections could be used for closenit get togethers and or "spoken word night"
Even an old 747? Use the first class for a VIP area, a almost "working" 747 without wings...

Pretty big difference in size their buddy... one plane doesnt have much standing room and the other is practically a flying town.

[Danjo]

Has anybody ever thought about taking an old hollowed out B-29 and turning it into a chic club or restaurant, or a cafe? The cockpit and tail sections could be used for closenit get togethers and or "spoken word night"
Even an old 747? Use the first class for a VIP area, a almost "working" 747 without wings...

Not a 747 or a B-29 but same idea:

http://www.theairplanerestaurant.com/
Others around the world...
http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/5/24/4817/37261/travel/Five+Airport+Bars+Made+From+Actual+Old+Airplanes
Pretty cool..